On the whole, the results of the study show that most of the parents in an Aceh school involved in this study did not understand the importance of the role of parent involvement in schooling processes. The study was based on Epstein's typology of parent involvement. Parents had different perceptions of the school’s need related to their involvement. The most important thing that was understood by the parents was that they understood well about parenting, but they did not really have a good knowledge about other types of parental involvement mentioned in Epstein’s typology. For instance, the way of parents’ communication with school depended on the problem of their children. In learning at home, the understanding of parents in assisting children in learning was more controlling than monitoring. They felt it enough to know whether their children are studying at home not if their children finished their homework. Concerning volunteering, the parents never became a volunteer, such as a guest teacher. In decision making, they were only involved in the school meetings without giving their opinions related to the school programs. In collaborating with the community, they almost never had the school programs to allow them to collaborate and cooperate with the community.
The main findings of this research on parent involvement in schooling processes in an Aceh school revealed that the understanding of parents about their involvement is limited. Parents merely know their roles, responsibilities, and obligations such as to meet the needs of children, raising children, supporting education and directing in learning. It is only understood as their obligations of being a parent and not on the basis that they are aware of the importance of parent involvement in education. Lack of knowledge about the benefits of parent involvement has led to the lack of awareness concerning the role of being parents both at home and school. In addition, parents have high expectations for their children in educational success. Parents believe that if they have met the
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needs of their children, the educational success of their children will be achieved. Therefore, they are only focused on providing the basic needs of their children without involving themselves well in the learning process at schools.
In brief, the division of everyday jobs and responsibilities within the family between father and mother are an impediment to parent’s involvement in schools. The parent still perceives that the work of a mother in any form is not categorized as busy even though they are both working. For example, mothers should be able to divide their time between working at home and being active outside the home. In addition, the responsibility of the father is seen as to provide the needs of families at home. Furthermore, fathers have the responsibility for their children's education concerning "violence" such as fighting at school, and thus the father is expected to contribute in solving their children's problems. Meanwhile, the perceived responsibility of the mother is to raise children, take care of the household and support their children's education. Likewise, a mother is also responsible for issues related to "softness" such as assisting their children in doing homework at home and attending school events. Given this understanding, mothers are more likely to engage in any events related to the development and achievement of their children at school and in the society. This was revealed in this study, in the percentage of mothers present at the school meetings and the distribution of students’ academic reports. Therefore, mothers were more frequently present than fathers.
Additionally, parents’ understanding of mentoring children in learning is that it is most needed for elementary school aged children. At the early age, children learn and interact with new environments such as schools, and they are still dependent on their parents. Thus, parents have the authority to decide on any matters relating to their children. As for the junior high level or the next level, parents’ assistance is not really necessary anymore. Parents believe when children enter their teens, they have become independent and are able to decide what is best for them. The role of parents is also diminishing as their children become an adult. In fact, accompaniment and support of parents in education is not only for primary school age children but also up to higher education. Although the parents do not know about the term golden age, they know that the primary school age children need greater assistance in learning and writing tasks than high school age children.
Overall, parents have positive expectations when it relates to education. One of the goals of the involvement of parents in supporting their children's education is in order to get good grades and behave well at school. Parents’ understanding of the learning associated with academic achievement has a great value in accordance with the minimum passing standard. Parents' perception of learning is the responsibility of their children in homework from school. The role of parents is just to remind and ensure the completion of work at home. Whether students know or not
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about the tasks assigned is not the priority. Thus, parents are not fully engaged in assisting the children when doing homework. In addition, the limited knowledge of the material taught in schools also caused the learning assistance to be ineffective. Therefore, to overcome the difficulties of children in completing assignments, parents facilitate with facilities such as internet technology. The internet is a solution to overcome the problems associated with learning.
Furthermore, this study has shown that parents communicate with their children and with teachers only when their children have a problem at school both academic and attitude. For example, one of the students’ academic problems is a low grade in particular subject. Importantly, in Sukma Bangsa School, there is a standard of assessment in the learning process leave out. There are three categories of grades which will be informed to parents on their children’s academic report, namely students’ participation, their knowledge, and practices. The teachers’ assessment of students’ participation includes their attitude. But, the assessments of students’ practice in learning consist of their skill, performance, class project, and portfolio. For this reason, parents should have the initiative to contact teachers. Also, they should have a positive communication with their children. In addition, parents should also be concerned to involve themselves in education to encourage their children's achievement. Therefore, they will automatically know their children’s development at school, even if their children have a problem at school.
Further, the other findings are that the purpose of the parent to attend events at school is to fulfill the school's invitation, not because of their responsibilities in supporting their children in education. Parent involvement in the educational process is not because of their own initiative, but it is caused by the school’s invitation to fulfill certain programs. For instance, the school invites parents to be a guest teacher. In this case, parents give their experience and knowledge to encourage students in learning. In fact, parents are not willing to become a guest teacher because they are really busy with their jobs. Moreover, parent involvement in the other activities such as attending to Sukma Award, Sukma Idol, bazaar, and family gathering is not optimal yet. Therefore, parents only attend the school when they receive an invitation from school.
Next, the role of the school committee does not support parent involvement. The surprising finding is that the school committee in Sukma Bangsa is not effective yet. Importantly, the school committee represents the concept of representativeness of parents so that parents get to be involved in the decision making concerning school policy. In fact, the school committee in Sukma Bangsa is not running well, because the school management has not formed the new school committee yet. The management of the school committee applies for 5 years. In Sukma Bangsa School, the school committee started from 2010 until 2015. Meanwhile, the structure of the school committee for 2016- 2021 has not been formed yet. Therefore, the school committee is not running well because it
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is still the previous school committee. Moreover, the school committee does not have programs to involve parents in the learning process and the school programs.
Finally, collaborating with the community has not been practiced by parents at the school. Actually, the school is making a connection to the community and organizations but is not optimal yet. On the other hand, parents have a connection to other parents through communication. Parents share the information about their children, especially when they take their children's academic reports. On this occasion, taking the children's academic reports is usually conducted in the classroom. Therefore, parents are able to meet other parents when they wait their turn for discussion with the homeroom teacher. Parents talk more to other parents about their children's attainment at school, their attitude, the school's programs, and barriers to their children's development in education. Moreover, parents are able to solve their children's problems both academic and attitude through sharing with others parents and also the homeroom teacher.